Lateral performance of midply wood shear walls with anchor tie-down system: Experimental investigation and numerical simulation

Abstract This paper presents experimental and numerical studies on the lateral performance of midply wood shear walls. A kind of anchor tie-down system (ATS) is introduced into the wood shear wall, and two different wall-foundation connections (i.e., screwed connection and bolted connection) are considered. Reserved cyclic loading tests were conducted to investigate the failure modes, lateral load resisting capacity, stiffness degradation, and energy dissipation of four midply wood shear wall specimens. Test results show that with the installation of ATS, the lateral load resisting capacity, energy dissipation, and lateral stiffness of the specimen increased by 154%, 427%, and 93%, respectively. The pull-out failure of the wall studs was also avoided with the application of ATS. Compared with the midply wood shear wall specimens with bolted wall-foundation connection, the specimens with screwed wall-foundation connection dissipated more energy; however, the fatigue failure of the screws might lead to brittle failure of the shear wall. A nonlinear finite element model of the midply wood shear wall was then developed and verified with the test results. User-defined Q-pinch model was applied to simulate the sheathing-framing connection of the shear wall. The simulation results show that the hysteretic behavior of the specimen with ATS was well predicted. The experimental and numerical studies provide fundamental knowledge for the development and application of midply wood shear walls, especially for the application of such wall system into mid-rise timber structures.